Zach and the “noise makers” – the Zach Scruggs’ Motion to Vacate Conviction slabbed: "Even when Judge Lackey speculated to the contrary, “I would think Mr. Scruggs would have to know something,” Balducci disabused him of the notion. Id. Likewise, the wiretaps show Steve Patterson telling Balducci that P.L. Blake, who was supposedly serving as an intermediary for Dick Scruggs, himself did not know of the purpose of the $40,000 that he would later ask Mr. Scruggs to pay to Mr. Balducci. Exh. “S”, 9/27/2007 Recording Tr. at 2-3. Of course, Movant was in even less of a position to know about the plot that Judge Lackey and the Government had hatched since Movant had no involvement with the money.
Only when Balducci was arrested and submitted to the Government’s compulsion did his story change.12 The Government thus not only created the crime, they also then wove a larger and larger net, until they caught their pre-chosen prey."
